Popular indie game platform itch.io says its domain was briefly taken down for a few hours Monday morning thanks to an "AI-driven" phishing report spurred by the company behind Funko Pop figures.

Itch.io says Funko used AI software that falsely flagged it for phishing. The site was down for hours before it was restored.

Indie game distribution site Itch.io has been offline today, and it has a truly bizarre reason as to why.

Itch.io, a website used to host a heap of games—primarily self-published indie projects—was taken down briefly this morning (or over the weekend, depending on time zones) thanks to, uh, Funko of Funko Pop infamy. I'm about as confused as you, and the site's creator Leafo, are.

“I kid you not, itch.io has has been taken down by Funko because they use some trash “AI Powered” Brand Protection Software called BrandShield that created some bogus Phishing report to our registrar iwantmyname, who ignored our response and just disabled the domain,” it claims.

Itch.io was taken down over the weekend (back up now) after an AI "brand protection software" used by Funko generated a bogus phishing report.

itch.io founder Leaf Corcoran claimed that toy company Funko was using “some trash ‘AI Powered’ Brand Protection Software called BrandShield”, which he says flagged a disputed page and filed a “bogus” report with itch.io’s domain registrar, which then ignored Corcoran’s response and disabled the domain.

Itch.io was offline for a few hours, and it was all due to Funko and an AI tool it uses to generate claims, Itch.io claims.The Latest Tech News, Delivered to Your Inbox

Rarely does a cautionary tale against using software automation in every step of the way come as clearly as the unfortunate itch.io saga that unraveled today. The owners of indie game marketplace itch.